[Editor’s Note: Today’s post is excerpted from remarks by Sister Ann Fox, who provided a tribute to the Benebikira Sisters when they received the Courage of Conscience Award from the Peace Abbey on September 26, 2010. As you read this, consider how their story illustrates mechanisms of moral engagement.]
It has been a privilege for the Paraclete Foundation to bring the Benebikira Sisters to Boston and to tell their story of courage and love during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide that claimed over 800,000 lives in 100 days.
The Benebikira Congregation is a native Rwandan order of Catholic nuns. Their Rwandese name means Daughters of Mary.
When many of Rwanda’s religious leaders failed their people during the Genocide of the Tutsi, this group of women “stood up” for truth, which meant putting their entire congregation of 350 sisters at risk for their refusal to separate themselves into ethnic groups and for their insistence on sheltering those seeing refuge.
“We knew ourselves that we were in danger of being killed but we said: ’We will help as we can until we die.”’
When the genocide began, the militia ordered the sisters to separate into ethnic groups, and they refused. The militia told the sisters they would be back later with reinforcements to kill them, but not before looting all their food and cutting their water lines.
In a nearby convent in Butare, the sisters had hidden over 20 children who had fled their homes after witnessing the slaughter of their parents. On April 30, the sisters watched in horror as militia stormed the building, found every child and took them away to be killed. The sisters were told they would “have to wait their turn to be killed.” By then, already two outlying small Benebikira convents had been decimated for “standing up.”
In June, the sisters began to hear rumors that July 4 would be the day they would be killed. On July 1 the Rwandan Patriot Front army arrived at the mother house, liberating over 200 sisters and refugees; on July 3 they liberated the Butare convent. On July 4 the genocide was over.
The Benebikira Congregation survived–but not without losses. In all, 20 of their sisters were killed. Four have been honored with “Hero” awards from the Rwandan government.
The Congregation survived to take up the work of peace, reconciliation and unity. They re-opened their schools, social services and health clinics, and they opened their hearts to care for the orphans that had swarmed to their doors.
Sr. Ann Fox, Paraclete Foundation
[See also the Benebikira Sisters featured in the National Catholic Reporter.]